It’s hard to accept that The Dark Knight Rises will likely be the last time we’ll see Christian Bale as Batman (though as Sean Connery would say, “Never say never”). On that note, Bale took the time to express his thoughts on the last chapter of Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy and the series as a whole, as well as speaking about his feelings about leaving the character behind after three films.

Bane might not rank among the “classic” Batman villains (the hulking back-breaker was introduced in the comics in 1993), but the character is a perfect fit for the Batman world created by Christopher Nolan in his Dark Knight trilogy. To play the villain in The Dark Knight Rises, Nolan turned to Tom Hardy, who appeared in Nolan’s previous film, Inception.

At last, it’s here: the long-awaited follow-up to 2008’s The Dark Knight, generally considered the best comic book superhero movie ever made (and until this year’s The Avengers, the highest-grossing). The Dark Knight Rises is also director Christopher Nolan’s farewell to the Batman franchise, and the nearly three-hour film was perhaps the most challenging of his career.

Christian Bale, reprising his role as “Bruce Wayne/Batman” in the third and final installment, The Dark Knight Rises, recently chatted about how even the action scenes and batsuit were the antithesis of what could be considered “average” for an action film